Richard Hawley set to showcase eighth studio album

Chris Page

Sheffield singer songwriter Richard Hawley plays his biggest home town show, first in two years, to showcase his eighth great studio album.

November 6 sees him play Sheffield Arena Steel Hall in support of Hollow Meadows during the 13-date UK tour, his longest UK in three years.

Northern fans can also enjoy the multi-talented musical maestro on October 28 at Scarborough Spa Grand Hall and November 1 at Leeds O2 Academy.

Recorded at Steel City’s Yellow Arch Studio in spring, the latest Parlophone platter sees Hawley return to the classic, sophisticated songwriting and subtle arrangements that have made him so widely loved and revered.

Meditating on such themes as ageing, fallibility and relationships, much of the album shares a brooding, yet wistful and romantic atmosphere in keeping with early albums Late Night Final and Lowedges as well as touches of 2009’s Truelove’s Gutter and Standing At The Sky’s Edge.

For the first time, he demoed the songs in his shed studio Disgracelands with long-time guitarist and confidant Shez Sheridan, who also co-produced the album with Hawley and Colin Elliot.

This collaboration allowed him to enter the studio with fully realised songs. Many of those original demos were so strong, they form part of the finished album, including vocals to sublime opening track I Still Want You that sees Hawley at his most vulnerable and romantic, with one of those choruses that only he seems capable of writing.

The album features some notable guests from the UK folk scene such a Hawley’s neighbour and friend Martin Simpson and Nancy Kerr. Other guests include one of his oldest and dearest friends, Jarvis Cocker, and Hick Street Chip Shop Singers, made up of various Sheffield luminaries including Slow Club’s Rebecca Taylor.

An album full of exceptional songwriting, beautiful melodies and harmonies and some of the finest lyrics and vocals Hawley as ever written and recorded, it further cements his reputation as one of Britain’s greatest songwriters of the past 15 years.